Msgr. Richard Liddy and Woodstock senior fellow John Haughey, S.J., lead a discussion at the CEO seminar.

More than twenty CEO's gathered on July 15-16th in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, for an interactive seminar on "The Vocation of the Catholic CEO: The Future of Corporate Leadership." The seminar was jointly designed by Seton Hall University and Woodstock. Dr. Terry Armstrong, director of Woodstock's Arrupe Program in Social Ethics for Business, helped facilitate a discussion on "Ethical Leadership Skills and Tools," and Woodstock senior fellow John Haughey, S.J., helped lead a session on "Faith-Based Ethical Leadership." Father Gasper Lo Biondo, S.J., facilitated the concluding discussion on "Where Do We Go from Here?"

The seminar was designed to provide an opportunity for Catholic CEO's to "mutually explore their vocation regarding the quality of their leadership, the ways in which they alter the ethical climate of their enterprises, and the spiritual resources of Catholicism that have sustained them in their corporate leadership."

Seton Hall University was represented by Msgr. Richard Liddy, director of the University's Center for Catholic Studies, and Dr. William Toth, co-director of the University's Institute on Work. Funding for the event was provided by the Lilly Endowment.

You can view the full, two-page announcement of the event, with descriptions of the individual discussion sessions (in PDF format).

Woodstock senior fellow Dolores R. Leckey.

The Cardinal Bernadin Award is given to "an individual, group, or institution which has furthered reconciliation and/or dialogue on important issues within the church." In presenting the award to Mrs. Leckey, the Common Ground Initiative cited her twenty years of work as Executive Director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Family, Laity, Women and Youth, where she "worked closely with the U.S. bishops to promote the role of the laity in the Church, by assisting lay women and men to respond to the universal call to holiness, and to assume their rightful place in the life and mission of the Church.... In recent years, Dolores' work as a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center has focused her efforts once again on church leadership and lay spirituality. She continues to demonstrate a willingness to meet Cardinal Bernadin's challenge in Called to be Catholic to approach the issues and forces that are shaping our Church and society 'with fresh eyes, open minds and changed hearts.'"

The June 25th Common Ground Initiative Lecture featured a presentation by John Allen (Rome correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter) on "Common Ground in a Global Key: International Lessons in Catholic Dialogue," with a response by Mary Ann Glendon (Learned Hand Professor of Law, Harvard University).

Woodstock senior fellow Dr. Terry Armstrong, director of the Arrupe Program in Social Ethics for Business and the Woodstock Business Conference.

The Arrupe Program in Social Ethics for Business and the Woodstock Business Conference were mentioned in an article in the May 2004 issue of U.S. Catholic magazine. The article, "By Their Fruits You Shall Know Them: Can Catholics make a difference for justice in the business world?", was written by Dennis O'Connor, managing editor of the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.

The article included a brief explanation by Dr. Armstrong of the Woodstock Business Conference's unique Ignatian process for aiding executives to reflect on and integrate their spiritual and work lives. It also included insights from Gregory F. Augustine Pierce, a member of the Chicago chapter of the Woodstock Business Conference, and owner of ACTA Publications. He relates some of the ways in which the chapter meetings help executives deal with very wrenching, difficult business decisions from the perspective of their Catholic faith.

You can read the full text of the article online at the U.S. Catholic web site.

Dr. Zhang Xianqing, a recent Woodstock International Visiting Fellow from the People's Republic of China.

Dr. Zhang Xianqing, a recent Woodstock International Visiting Fellow from the People's Republic of China, has been awarded the 1st Ph.D. Dissertation Award from the Centre for the Study of Religion and Chinese Society at Chung Chi College, Chinese University of Hong Kong. His thesis, entitled “Local Government, Lineages and Christianity: The Development of Rural Church in the Late Ming and Early Qing Fu'an, Eastern Fujian,” will be published by the Centre and he will be an honorary research associate there during the coming year.

You can read the summary of a presentation that Dr. Zhang made at Woodstock on April 15, 2004, relating the results of his research into "The Dialogue between Christianity and Chinese Folk Beliefs In the Ming-Qing Period." His presentation notes the ways in which 16th-18th century Jesuits like Matteo Ricci, Giulio Aleni, and Joseph Marie de Mailla adapted to the challenges and opportunities presented by the deep-rooted folk religious beliefs that they encountered among the native population while working in China.

Amb. Robert Hennemeyer speaking at the May 4, 2004 Woodstock Forum.

The May 4, 2004 Woodstock Forum on Forgiveness in International Politics: An Alternative Road to Peace was the subject of an article by Julie Bourbon the June 2004 of National Jesuits News.

The article notes several major questions considered during the Forum: "Is there a social and political understanding of forgiveness, one that goes beyond personal and pietistic notions? Does forgiveness have a track record in political and international affairs? ... And is there a credible forgiveness-based approach to dealing with the challenges such as international terrorism and the reconstruction of Iraqi society?"

Participants in the Forum included Drew Christiansen, S.J., Doris Donnelly, Robert Hennemeyer, and Donald Shriver, Jr.

You can read the full article on the National Jesuit News web site (in PDF format, p. 4).

Former Woodstock International Visiting Fellow Dr. Fabrice Blée.

Dr. Fabrice Blée, a former Woodstock International Visiting Fellow, has finished making final corrections to his book on Monastic Interreligious Dialogue, which is being readied for publication in September 2004 by Médiaspaul. Father Pierre de Béthune of Belgium, a leader in the international monastic dialogue movement, has agreed to write the preface.

This book incorporates a great deal of work that Dr. Blée carried out as an International Visiting Fellow at Woodstock during the 2002-3 academic year. The book is the first volume in a series that he has created entitled Spiritualities in Dialogue. Additional volumes are set to include a book on the spirituality of dialogue by Richard Bergeron (University of Montreal) and a text on Christianity and Amerindian religion by Achiel Peelman, O.M.I.

In June, Dr. Blée taught a course on mystical theology at Saint Paul University in Ottawa, Canada. In December, he is scheduled to travel to Austria to offer a short seminar on "pioneers in spiritual dialogue" at the University of Salzburg.

The Spiritual Exercises for Church Leaders Facilitator's guide.

On June 21, 2004, Woodstock director Gasper Lo Biondo, S.J., and senior fellow Dolores Leckey guided the national staff of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development through a retreat designed to help them nourish and strengthen an "authentic spirituality of leadership." The Catholic Campaign for Human Development is the domestic anti-poverty, social justice program of the U.S. Catholic bishops, and has funded more than 4,000 programs across the country in its more than 30 years of work.

The retreat designed by Father Lo Biondo and Mrs. Leckey drew on the Ignatian process fashioned by Woodstock's Church Leadership Program, and contained in its Spiritual Exercises for Church Leaders workbooks.